Featured Maker: Andee Napiorkowski

In this new series of posts we’ll be featuring some of the makers that you can expect to see at the Maker Faire. Since no maker event would be complete without some awesome flashing lights, first up is Andee and his stunning 8 x 8 x 8 RGB LED cube. That’s 512 full-colour LEDs!

“It was almost like I got possessed by the spirit of the LED cube. There’s just ‘something’ about them,” he said. Andee started out assembling Jaycar kits and had never designed a circuit or written any microprocessor code before the LED cube. Not a bad first effort we reckon!

“Initially I did consider just buying a kit, but after reading as much as I could find about LED cubes and doing a few microcontroller “tutorials”, I decided it might be fun to finally try something like this for my self,” Andee told us. Incredibly he says that the intricate lattice of wiring for the LEDs was the “easy part” but admitted that it “took a lot of time and a lot of patience.”

“It’s all the late nights of hacking at the code trying to get the thing to work, that was far more challenging and at times far more frustrating,” he said, adding that that there never was any commercial reason for the project. “I did it purely for the fun and achievement of it.”

If that doesn’t sum up the maker spirit then what does? Head over to Andee’s site to see much more detail on the cube and his other projects. You will of course have the chance to see the cube in action at the Faire. Can’t wait? Click the break for a video tease.